1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an XD memory card adapter, and especially to such an adapter rendering a reading/writing device to proceed writing and reading on an XD memory card to thereby increase the function of the reading/writing device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Flash memory cards (to be in abbreviation hereinafter as memory cards) developed in the recent years are light, thin and small, they have the superior features of high storage capacity, vibration durability, repeated memorizing for many times etc., and are widely applied in the field of IA (Information Appliance) and many portable digital products. For example, nearly all the popular products including personal digital assistants (PDA), digital cameras (DSC), digital walkmans (MP3 Players) etc. in the markets use the memory cards as storage media.
There is no uniform standard or specification presently in the art of memory cards in the whole world presently. Related products that are well known include at least: PC ATA cards, CF cards (Compact Flash cards), SM cards (Smart Media cards), MMC cards (MultiMedia cards), MS cards (Memory Stick cards) and SD cards (Secure Digital cards) etc.; and not only are multifactorial, but also have their respective predominance in the markets. For the consumer public, this results that a plurality of memory cards can not be effectively and commutatively used among portable digital products and computer systems as well as peripheral equipment of the computers, thereby the consumers not only are inconvenient in using, but also are quite limited in selection of using digital products in the future.
And more, following progressing of the science and technology, memory cards tend to be developed continuously in pursuance of the requirement of the markets. For example, CF cards are divided into Type I and Type II (with different thickness); and an xe2x80x9cXD memory cardxe2x80x9d provided by a manufacturer recently has the same specifications as those of the SM cards, except that the size thereof is largely reduced as compared with the SM cards (the size of an SM card is: 45xc3x9737xc3x970.76, while the size of an XD memory card is 20.0xc3x9725.0xc3x971.7). This results that, although there are multiple support products for the SM card specification, the products can not support the newly developed xe2x80x9cXD memory cardsxe2x80x9d due to inconsistence of specification of size, to the consumers, it may provide a new selection, but it also inadvertently increases inconvenience of intercommunication among data.
In view of this, the inventor of the present invention developed the xe2x80x9cXD memory card adapterxe2x80x9d of the present invention to eliminate the above stated problems by connecting an xe2x80x9cXD memory cardxe2x80x9d to a given memory card reading/writing device via the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, memory card reading/writing devices 1 sold in the markets each has an insertion slot 2 with a plurality of electric interfaces (not shown) for insertion and connection of memory cards of various specifications of size. In the conventional memory card reading/writing device shown in the drawing, the insertion slot 2 is wider on the lower part thereof and can afford insertion of memory cards like the above stated SM cards or others with larger widths. The xe2x80x9cXD memory card adapterxe2x80x9d of the present invention was figured out primarily for the purpose of increasing the function of the insertion slot 2 on such a memory card reading/writing device 1 with the feature of having different widths on the upper and the lower parts thereof.
Moreover, some memory card reading/writing devices 1 sold in the markets are specific for memory cards of one kind of specification. The insertion slot 2 has only a width, and is directly mounted on the housing of a device or on a digital product ( for example, a Fuji digital camera only has an insert ion slot specific for SM cards). The present invention further designed a second embodiment for such a conventional memory card reading/writing device.
The XD memory card adapter of the present invention is comprised of an adapter board, a first pin set, a second pin set and a plurality of connecting lines; it can be used in cooperating with a memory card reading/writing device. The memory card reading/writing device has at least an insertion slot having therein a memory card electric interface, and is characterized by that: the adapter board can be inserted into the insertion slot to make connection of the first pin set with the memory card electric interface in the insertion slot; and the adapter board is provided on the side in opposition to the first pin set with the second pin set, the first pin set is connected with the second pin set via the connecting lines. When an XD memory card is inserted into the insertion slot, the input/output pins of the XD memory card can be electrically connected with the second pin set, and is communicated with the first pin set through the connecting lines to thereby render the reading/writing device to proceed data writing and reading on the XD memory card.
An object of the present invention is: when the input/output pins of the XD memory card of the present invention are connected with the second pin set, the memory card electric interface in the insertion slot can execute data writing and reading on the XD memory card, so that a conventional memory card reading/writing device can support XD memory cards to increase the function of the given reading/writing device.
Another object of the present invention is: when in practicing, the adapter board can be provided thereon with an insertion slot for inserting therein a memory card; the adapter board can be inserted into the already given insertion slot on a conventional memory card reading/writing device, it is connected through a first pin set, a second pin set and a plurality of connecting lines, and thereby, the conventional memory card reading/writing device can execute data writing and reading on the XD memory card.
A further object of the present invention is: when in practicing, by taking advantage of the feature that the electric interface, communication protocol as well as the control method of an XD memory card are all of the same specifications as those of an SM card, the first pin set is made to have the positions of its pins corresponding with the electric interface with the specification of the SM card, so that the given memory card reading/writing devices obtained from the markets can support the XD memory card; they can use the already given insertion slot without the requirement of additionally making an insertion slot space for the XD memory card. Thereby, the present invention can increase function with lower cost and thereby can get an effect meeting the economic benefit.
The present invention will be apparent after reading the detailed description of the preferred example thereof in reference to the accompanying drawings.